Muesli

 

I love granola,  but while it packs a nutritional punch, it is chock full of sugars and calorie dense.  Fine to bring on a 10 mile hike or eat on occasion but not a dietary staple.  Muesli on the other hand and can be a substitute for store-bought sugar-laden, highly processed cereal.  This muesli is adapted and modified significantly from several recipes on the web and is made with oats, nuts, coconut and dried fruit. It is highly adaptable to what you have in your pantry and contains no added sugars and oils.  However, oats and dried fruit have carbs (including simple sugars) and the coconut and nuts are full of good fats.

 

 

Ingredients

3.5 cups of rolled oats (do not substitute steel cut oats)

1.5 cups of nuts (I used raw pepitas, pecans, walnuts, broken into largish pieces)

1 cup dried fruit (I used raisins)

1/2 cup desiccated unsweetened coconut. (optional)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F.
2. Line two jelly roll pans with aluminum oil.
3. Mix and evenly spread the oats, cinnamon and salt on one pan and the nuts on the other.  Its better to put the oats on top and the nuts on the bottom in the oven.
4. Bake 7-10 min.   Use your nose and eyes here since both can quickly go from roasted to burnt in no time.  Start checking their doneness at 4-5 min or when you get a nutty aroma from both the oats and the nuts.  (Other recipes suggest a 350˚F oven temperature and 10-20 min baking period, but this did not work for me)
5. In a large bowl, mix the oats and nuts together, then add the the coconut while the Muesli is still warm.  Cool, then add the raisins or other dried fruit.  When completely cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature.
6. Eat as is or with fruit and milk or yogurt.

Cranberry Orange Chutney

I found this recipe while looking to use up leftover cranberries from thanksgiving at a blog called Wives with Knives (http://www.wiveswithknives.net/2014/11/01/cranberry-tangerine-chutney-2/).  Though delicious as written,  it has a number of ingredients that I do not normally stock (canned oranges, candied ginger etc). So I adapted it to make it with what I normally have in the pantry, fridge or freezer.  I also omitted the apple in the original recipe and of course adjusted the spices.  I also added salt.

Ingredients:

3 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

1 large orange coarsely chopped (or 2 clementines)

Rind of 1 large orange, grated, no pith ( or rind of 2 clementines, grated)

½ cup apple cider

1 ½ cups granulated white sugar

1 cup water

½” fresh ginger, grated

¾ tsp cinnamon pwd

1 tbs curry powder ( you read that right)

¼ tsp clove pwd

¼ tsp allspice pwd

½ cup raisins

Salt to taste

Method

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot and bring to a boil.  (You can hold off on using all of the salt, until the end when the chutney has thickened).
2. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally.  Chutney will thicken and begin to coat the back of a spoon or the bottom of the pot ~ 40 min. Chutney will thicken further as it cools so don’t overdo it.
3. Taste and adjust the salt. The chutney should taste, tart, sweet, savory and hot.
4. The chutney can be stored in the fridge for weeks or in the freezer for months. It is delicious on a cracker or over baked brie.  Although I have never done it, I imagine it would be great as a glaze for a roasted chicken or ham.

 

White Chocolate Maple Walnut Fudge

I have been making this fudge from a recipe on the food blog ” Thibeault’s Table” for years.  This recipe is the real deal, no evaporated milk, condensed milk or marshmallows to get you fudge to gel.  However, I find the instructions a bit confusing and the timings do not work for me.  I have tried to nail the recipe down so making real fudge is not intimidating, although it is time consuming.

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter cut into pieces

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp table salt

6-8 oz white chocolate (I used 1.5 cups of ghirardelli white chocolate chips)

Or substitute 2 4 oz bars of bitter sweet or semi-sweet chocolate broken into pieces.

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup toasted walnuts crudely chopped (might want to up this to 1.5 cups)

 

Method

1.  Mix together the sugars, maple syrup, butter, cream and salt in a sauce pan fitted with a candy thermometer.
2. On a medium flame and with frequent stirring, bring to a boil.  Lower the flame to medium low and allow the mix to come to 234-238˚F (16 min, for me; 7 min in the original recipe). This is called the soft ball stage, in candy-speak.  This means, if you don’t have a thermometer, put a cold cup of water next to your stove and at 7 min,  drop a few drops of the candy mix into the water.  When ready, it should form a soft ball.  See image below.   At this point,  the candy mix will feel like you are stirring crystallizing sugar and air.

3.   Cool for 10-15 min.  At this point, my candy mix was at 180˚F.  I added the white chocolate chips and vanilla to the candy surface without stirring.

4.  Cool further until the mix is 110˚F.  This took about 54 min, but the original recipe says to wait to 10-15 min.

5.  While mix is cooling, prepare a pan for the fudge.  I used a 8″x6″x2″ glass pan lined with foil, but you can use anything that you have.

6.  Once the mix is at 110˚F,  use a hand-held mixer to  beat the mixture for 1-2 min. till the fudge loses its sheen.

7.  Add the walnuts and mix with a wooden spoon.

8.  Spread the fudge in the prepared pan and let it cool a bit before putting it into the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

9.  Then cut into small pieces.  I usually keep this in the fridge, but it should be fine at room temp for several days and also freezes beautifully.

Note: If you don’t have a candy thermometer, just follow the provided times (which is what I used to do).  If you don’t call the soft ball stage right, and stop too early, the fudge will begin the melt at room temp.  But it will be fine to serve it straight out of the fridge where it will stay solid. The taste will be the same.

Don’t go much over the prescribed temperature or you will have hard candy.

 

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Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls and Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham)

 

The cafeteria at work sells Vietnamese Spring rolls for a ransom.  I thought it was time to switch to home-made ones and really, they are so easy to make and so versatile that they should be in your lunch rotation.   You can use whatever you have in the fridge and scale up to any number of people you want to feed.  Plus throw a couple of dipping sauces in.   My favorites are peanut sauce and nuoc cham, the Vietnamese sweet chilli garlic sauce.    For the Spring Roles, I  am providing a list of what I consider to be essential ingredients, plus a list of other ingredients that you can pick from.  I am providing  no quantities, you can scale up and down as you wish. You can buy the peanut sauce and nuoc cham and you can easily find vegetarian versions of each.  I am providing a version of nuoc cham that I obtained from the blog Cafe Sucre Farine and will post a recipe for peanut sauce another time.

Ingredients:

Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham): 

2/3 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tbs fish sauce

2 tbs lime juice

1 tsp sambal olek (chilli sauce)

1-2 tsp cilantro stems, chopped fine

 

Spring Rolls (Essential Ingredients):

• Spring Roll Wraps (any size), available at almost all supermarkets
• Cilantro, finely chopped
• Fresh Basil Leaves, finely chopped
• Mint, Finely Chopped
• Avocados
• Firm Tofu, or substitute cooked shrimp/ left-over noodles,  or simply add more avocados and bean sprouts.  Anything that provides body will do.
• Roasted, unsalted peanuts, crushed

Optional ingredients:

• Lettuce, finely slivered
• Bean Sprouts
• Carrots, shredded
• Radish, shredded
• Raw Mango, shredded
• Scallions, green parts, finely minced
• Serrano peppers, finely minced
• lime
• Teriyaki Sauce, Soy Sauce, Salt

 

Method:

1. Purchase or prepare dipping sauce(s).  For home-made  Nuoc cham, mix all listed ingredients and you are good to go.
2. Prepare the Tofu:

Cut the Tofu slab into 5 horizontal sheets.  Heat oil in a frying pan and add the sheets.  Cook on high heat for a few minutes till both sides are browned (see image).  If you like, you can flavor the tofu with some teriyaki sauce as I did, or soy sauce or salt.  Cool and cut into match-sticks (see image).

3. Prep all other ingredients and have them available.

4.Place warm water in a large pan large enough to submerge the Spring Roll wraps.  A 9×13 baking pan works    well.

5. Assemble the Spring Rolls:

1.  Submerge the Spring Roll wraps in the warm water till they soften and lose shape.  This takes seconds
2. Place the wrap flat on a cutting board.
3. Place ingredients on the wrap leaving a 1.5″ border on three sides.  Include the essential ingredients and any other ingredients of your choice from the optional list.  Do not overstuff.
4.  Fold in the top and bottom and then the short  side.
5. Roll the wrap and gently press the edges.  The edges will seal easily.
6. Continue, till you are out of ingredients.
7. Serve with dipping sauces.

 

 

 

 

Quick Indian Chili Pepper Pickles (Mirchi ka Achar)

My mom made the best Indian pickles in the world.  Before she died,  I transcribed some of her recipes (minimal as they were) onto my iPhone Notes.  Unfortunately, when I bought a new phone,  these files did not survive and now these recipes are nothing but a memory on my tongue.  So I was delighted to come across a recipe on the website called Indian Simmer.  I adapted and the simplest one and used the last of my garden’s serranos to make a pickle you can prepare in just a few minutes and eat within a few hours.

Ingredients:

• 250 gm chili peppers, any combination.  I used a mix of red fresno and serrano peppers, but Thai bird peppers are traditional and much, much hotter.
• 1 tbs.  brown mustard seeds
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (omit if you cannot find these)
• Generous pinch of Asafoetida (Hing).  Skip if you cannot find it,  but this is like fish sauce and adds a lot of umami, although it would taste awful if you placed a pinch on your tongue.
• 5-6 tablespoons oil, preferably mustard oil  (this oil really lends the distinct Indian pickle flavor, but swap with other unflavored oils if you have to). There should be enough oil to fully coat the peppers.  This is the second preservative.
• Salt to taste  (1 used 3 tsp- this acts as a preservative, so don’t skimp.
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• 1/2 tbs. Lemon juice (use vinegar if you prefer)
• 1 tsp. Turmeric powder

Method:

• Heat the mustard oil until it is smoking, then turn off the stove and allow it to cool completely to room temperature.  This reduces the pungency of the mustard oil.
• Stem the chillies and pulse them in a food processor to get smallish pieces (this will only take a few pulses) .  You can also cut these by hand which is traditional.
• Place the chillies in a medium sized bowl and add salt.  Dry brine the chillies for 1/2 hour (or longer).
• You can drain the water from the chilies if you want to reduce the heat after the brining.
• In a coffee grinder,  coarsely grind the mustard, fennel, fenugreek seeds and transfer to a small bowl.  Mix in the asafetida, oil, salt, sugar, lemon juice and turmeric powder.
• Toss the spice mix with the chillies.
• Taste and adjust the salt and lemon to taste.
• Transfer the pickles to a glass jar.   You should probably sterilize the jar or run it through the dishwasher.
• Let the pickles sit on the counter for a day and then store in the fridge.  These should keep for a long time.

 

Notes:

• The pickles will taste better after a few days, although they can be used right away if you cannot wait.
• The pickles will also lose some of their heat over time.
• These pickles can be used as an accompaniment to any Indian meal, but are also great on buttered toast, on eggs, you name it!